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American Pastoral

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Discover the Pulitzer-prize winning novel that confirmed Philip Roth as one of the greatest American writers.

'Swede' Levov is living the American dream.

He glides through life cocooned by his devoted family, lucrative business, sporting prowess and good looks. He is the embodiment of thriving, post-war America, land of liberty and hope.

Until one sunny day in 1968, when Swede's daughter, Merry, commits an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism and the Levov family is plunged into mayhem. Extraordinarily nuanced and poignant, American Pastoral is the first in an eloquent trilogy of post-war American novels that still resonates today.

©1997 Philip Roth (P)2023 Penguin Audio Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Political War

Critic reviews

'Angry, grieving, witty, acute.' Sunday Times

'A profound and personal meditation on the changes in the American psyche over the last fifty years.' Financial Times

'A momentous novel.' Observer
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An impressive reading for a complicated and spiralling book. All of Roth is worth reading and this is a great place to start.

A brilliant reading for a brilliant book.

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A profound book. Gives an insight into American Jewish consciousness in the Nixon period and gets to the general turbulence of that time. Ingeniously recreates the life of the main character based on the imagination, and tells a captivating tale of his downfall. Such rich characters, especially the grandfather. The narrator's pitch and tone were perfect.

Captivating story and characters, brought to life in audio

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Some good passages about America, but otherwise really hard work. It’s a theme for me with Roth, Human Stain was better but still difficult. I won’t be reading any more from him.

Awful book

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